Land Fit for Heroes Series - Morgan [Feb 21, 2022]

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

This is a Buddy Read for the Land Fit for Heroes Series by Richard K. Morgan starting with book one The Steel Remains on February 21, 2022.
Book 1: The Steel Remains [Feb 21, 2022]
Book 2: The Cold Commands [TBD]
Book 3: The Dark Defiles [TBD]

[Rob]

Awesome sauce.

[Laura Tenfingers]

I'm all over this.

[Choko]

I plan on reading this:)

[Rob]

Just got my library copy today :)

[Dave]

If this is starting Monday, I'm in, at least for the first book.

[Rob]

Yep - Monday is the official start date. I might start a little early.

[Nirkatze]

I want to join, but not sure if I can squeeze it in. We'll see!

[Choko]

Ch. 1... (view spoiler)[ So, the first sentence was awesome! You can't help it but be intrigued...
Ringo is the first person we meet, and from what I gather, he is gay and because of it, not very liked. However, he is some sort of a hero from a battle and people tend to not get on him because of his skills with a sword... We haven't met the teacher yet, whose dead mother tried to climb through the window and eat him, but I already like him, because he has been accepting of who Ringo is from the beginning...
I like the idea of the demonic worms that animate dead bodies:) (hide spoiler)]

[Rob]

Choko wrote: "Ch. 1... So, the first sentence was awesome! You can't help it but be intrigued...
Ringo is the first person we meet, and from what I gather, he is gay and because of it, not very liked. However, ..."

I read chapter 1 earlier tonight as well. (view spoiler)[As I said in another read - grimdark sure ain't subtle. I had to read that first line twice and almost read aloud to my wife, I liked it so much. It's nice to know exactly where Ringo stands he's a realist. I suspect he'd get along with the Bloody Nine, well maybe. (hide spoiler)]

[Rob]

through chapter 3. can't place a finger on it yet, but just enjoying the characters already and the tone of the book. haven't read Moran since I read Altered Carbon and never read the rest of that series for no apparent reason even though I really liked the first book.

[Choko]

So, up to Ch. 5.. Ringil, the gay war hero, Egar, the tribe leader and the black lady, I am not sure how to spell her name, but it starts with an A, seem to be forming up our main POV characters...

I am enjoying the writing quite a bit! Not yet sure what exactly is going on, but obviously at least Ringil has a quest given to him by his mother... (view spoiler)[ What are the chances that the white young slave woman the Emperor was toying with while talking to A, was Ringil's cousin he is supposed to find? Just a thought...

The sex doesn't bother me at all. I had no idea what type of book this is going to be. I never read excerpts or reviews before I start reading, because I like to find out for myself, but I just checked several reviews and apparently people think there is too much sex in it... I haven't really felt this way so far... (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

Ch 5-6 (view spoiler)[ I am wondering how important that person/creature that did that to the head is described as "beautiful" will be in the story...

Egar is having some issues with the shamans and their G-d... He didn't make any friends in the tribe at this moment... (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

I just got to Ch 10, and at first, I was so angry with the shaman, but then (view spoiler)[ I didn't expect that God/ess to appear the way she did ... That was awesome and scary at the same time, because I don't think those gods are very nice... Particularly since she said he had been calling on them by killing and torturing small things and drinking their blood... I still hope he gets what is coming to him! I just wish she had finished what she started... Poor girls he had been abusing though... (hide spoiler)]

I am taking a bit of a break until everyone gets involved a bit:)

[Choko]

So, I obviously suck at trying to hold back while reading...

Up to Ch 15... (view spoiler)[ The shaman's G-ds or demons, I am not sure at this point, are working to get Egar off the clan chief position... I wonder why they hate him so much... And it pissed me off that the shaman was judging Egar for sleeping with a young woman! What a two-faced asshole!

Ringil's flashbacks in Ch. 15 were pretty disturbing... No wonder he is angry all of the time... (hide spoiler)]

[Rob]

I'm up to 6.
(view spoiler)[Agreed about the sex. Doesn't bother me at all. And yes, that woman is totally the cousin. The coincidence is too good for it not to be. Of course it could be a red herring to throw us off. We'll see! (hide spoiler)]

Ch 4. Archeth (view spoiler)[Yep, looks like 3 POVs is what we'll get. Not sure I understand this world quite well enough yet. She is a kiriath or a member of them or a wanna be? Not sure what it means if she's just from a different world, semi-god like or both. (hide spoiler)]

Ch 5. -(view spoiler)[Definitely a lot of world building and magic system stuff that I feel initiated too yet. Whether it gets fully explained or more understandable remains to be seen. Not sure if the beautiful person is the emperor or some different person entirely. (hide spoiler)].

[Choko]

So, I am up to Ch 15, but in this post I will express an opinion over what you said, Rob... (view spoiler)[ I think the author is going to let us discover things slowly, no info dumps so far... Archeth seems to be a half human and half Kiriath, but we have no idea what Kiriath are, apart from Black and possibly alien...

When it comes to that really beautiful and powerful person, my first thought was some type of Fae or whatever the equivalent of this world is... (hide spoiler)]

[Rob]

Choko wrote: "So, I am up to Ch 15, but in this post I will express an opinion over what you said, Rob... I think the author is going to let us discover things slowly, no info dumps so far... Archeth seems to b..."

That was my sense as well. I much prefer this style to info dumps. (I'm looking at you Mr. Islington!)

[Dave]

Choko wrote: "So, up to Ch. 5.. Ringil, the gay war hero, Egar, the tribe leader and the black lady, I am not sure how to spell her name, but it starts with an A, seem to be forming up our main POV characters......"

I started the book this morning, also up to Ch. 5.
(view spoiler)[I had the same thought about the first sentence, I had no idea I was in for a zombie story!

About the young slave woman, I was thinking along the same lines. If that isn't Sherin, I am expecting her to end up in the emperor's harem at some point, because what better way to make Ringil's task as difficult and perilous as it could possibly be?

I'm with you in regard to the sex. It doesn't bother me as long as it is fitting for the story. I just have two rules about it. 1) Don't make it seem like I am reading a romance book if it is not a romance book. 2) Don't make the sex/relationships feel like they were written by a 14 year old boy, especially if the target audience for the book is adults. (hide spoiler)]

[Dave]

Rob wrote: "through chapter 3. can't place a finger on it yet, but just enjoying the characters already and the tone of the book. haven't read Moran since I read Altered Carbon and never read the rest of that ..."

That's funny, it's the same for me. Altered Carbon is the only one I have read previously. I thought it was just alright, but that may be an unfair assessment because I think I was in a slight reading slump at the time.

[Choko]

I never got to read Altered Carbon, but by all the things people say, that will be a goal of mine to read it...

Aldrain<=>dwenda<=> pretty+shiny are all one and the same and it would equate to our Fae... It took me a minute to figure this out. Supposedly they are a legend, but the Kiriath claim they fought them at some point... Not completely sure yet.

[Dave]

Not much time to read today, through Ch. 8 now. I am not entirely sure that I am following everything as well as I would like to, especially with Egar's and Archeth's POVs, but I suppose that is intended to some degree at this point in the story. Interested to see how the pieces start fitting together though. One thing I can say for certain is that Ringil's dialog alone is keeping me quite entertained!

[Choko]

Ringil is quite the potty mouth! I enjoy his dialogue as well.
I think Egar and Archeth are supposed to be a bit in the background at this time. I think you are right, we will be discovering everything as we go further in.

[Dave]

Through Ch. 12 now. I'm still not really sure where the story is going, but enjoying the ride so far.

Ch. 10 (view spoiler)[So, Poltar. He's a real piece of work. At least he got knocked down a peg or two. "Poltar of the dozen mighty strokes." That was great. And here I thought Ringil was going to have all the best lines. (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

Haha! Great point:);)

[Dave]

It's gotten mighty quiet in here lately. I'm through Ch. 19. (view spoiler)[I probably should have been expecting treachery, but I was just as surprised by the longshank girls as Ringil was when the curtains opened. He definitely gets into a lot of difficult situations. Egar is in trouble too with where things left off with him. I'm getting pretty invested in the story now, even if I am still a bit unclear as to the big picture of what is going on in this world. (hide spoiler)]

[Rob]

I'm up to Chapter 28 and all I can say is for Chapter 19 and beyond (view spoiler)[Things are going to get weirder, slightly more confusing, and not explained fully until the next few books! (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[It is fairly obvious that the book is trying to reunite our three POVs together again, but curious to see how they do it and why getting them together is even so necessary. Must be something in their past that is a big part of it that has yet to be told. The book is full of deux ex machina, but I think the author isn't using as a crutch so much as he is toying with us :) (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

I think it is very well written:))) It invents some new names for things we use in Fantasy lore, which is a bit unnecessary in my opinion, but it does give it its own flavor, so I rolled with it. Definitely a ton of things we will have to figure out along the way though...

[Dave]

Rob wrote: "I'm up to Chapter 28 and all I can say is for Chapter 19 and beyond [spoilers removed]

[spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[It will be interesting to see how these characters/POVs come together. So far Morgan has been very subtle and mysterious in regard to whatever connection it was that they had in the past. (hide spoiler)]

[Dave]

I finished the book. Entertaining enough, but I wouldn't say that it blew me away. A few comments regarding the events toward the end of the book: (view spoiler)[The lead-up to the final battle seemed a bit rushed to me. Ringil finds Sherin, escapes the Dwenda, runs into Egar, and then is found by Archeth, all over the course of a couple of chapters. Also, the events after his fight with the longshank gang felt a bit like lucking into finding Sherin without much agency. Perhaps this is some of the deus ex machina that Rob was referring to earlier. Actually I think Morgan implied that the reuniting of the characters was perhaps influenced by Egar's gods, which I suppose would be quite literally deus ex machina in a way.

The ending was actually more of a conclusion than I was anticipating, but I think that was due to the last section of the book being such a quick sprint compared to the lead-up to it. My copy of the book makes no mention of a sequel or the Land Fit For Heroes series, so maybe follow-up books were not yet a certainty when this one was written. (hide spoiler)]

[Frank]

@ Dave
I agree (view spoiler)[ I felt it was a bit rushed into the last 50 pages, I can say that it felt wrapped up, however, it will be interesting what he does with the characters. (hide spoiler)]

[Dave]

Frank wrote: "@ Dave
I agree [spoilers removed]"

Thanks for sharing. I am definitely planning to continue the series at some point.

[Rob]

I'd like to continue as well, but not sure when to fit in.

[Dave]

Rob wrote: "I'd like to continue as well, but not sure when to fit in."

I won't have time this month, but perhaps sometime after that. I also need to acquire a copy beforehand, as the second book is the one that I don't already own.

[Choko]

We can be here the beginning of April?

[Rob]

Maybe the 4th or the week after? I know the new Gwynne comes out the second week of April though :)

[Choko]

The 4th is good with me:)

[Dave]

That will work for me. I ordered the book, so I should have it by then.

[Rob]

I put in a buddyread request for the 4th. Posted to the Broken Empire thread as well - wondering if we might want to power through this back to back weeks with book 2 and 3 before those reading Broken Empire power through books 2 and 3 of that (or doing one than the other....

[Choko]

Either way is good with me, as long as people post when we start. I have all the books, so I am ready:)

[Dave]

I'm not sure that I will have time to read them in back to back weeks, but if you want to plan it that way, I'll do my best to keep up.